This invention relates to a physical therapy apparatus and particularly to an apparatus for enabling proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation of a patient's body structure. Therapeutic exercise apparatus typical of those known prior to this invention are shown in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,777,439 to Tuttle; 3,089,700 to Hotas; 4,258,913 to Brentham; 4,355,633 to Heilbrun; and 4,407,496 to Johnson.
The value of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation in the rehabilitation of persons suffering from various disabilities has been recognized in the relevant literature and significant effort has been devoted to developing procedures for such therapeutic exercise. Less attention has been devoted to the development of apparatus which enables such exercise, particularly with regard to the complex movements of which the human body is capable. One difficulty which can be and has been encountered in connection with the design and development of apparatus intended for such therapeutic exercise is the relative ease of developing apparatus capable of accomodating movement around a single axis, and the great difficulty in applying such apparatus in exercising body structure capable of multi-axis movement.
Specific examples of such apparatus and body structure are the apparatus known by the trademark "Cybex" and the human shoulder joint. The Cybex apparatus is a well recognized and widely used apparatus which is quite successfully applied in therapeutic exercise of joints and muscle structure which either inherently are or are adaptable to single axis function, such as an elbow or ankle. The shoulder joint should be capable of an exceptional freedom of movement, sometimes called global, which rarely has a single axis of motion and often has axes which move as the movement proceeds. Particularly where disability affects performance of normal movement, therapeutic exercise desirably should be able to involve movement of the body structure in such a manner.